The L.A. Lakers honored Kobe Bryant on 2/8/24--a date representing his daughter Gianna's jersey number as well as both jersey numbers that Kobe wore during his 20 season Lakers career--by unveiling a statue depicting Bryant wearing jersey number eight and raising his right arm triumphantly after scoring 81 points versus the Toronto Raptors on January 22, 2006. The base of the statue carries the inscriptions Kobe Bean Bryant and "Black Mamba" above a list of a few of his many accomplishments.
Bryant's widow Vanessa was the final speaker before the Lakers unveiled the Bryant statue. Vanessa explained that there will be two other Bryant statues: one will include Bryant alongside Gianna, and the other will depict Bryant wearing jersey number 24. Vanessa took a preemptive strike against anyone who might criticize how tonight's statue looks--a sad certainty in an era of social media oversaturation--by noting that Bryant chose the pose used for the statue and he provided other input about the design. Vanessa said that she only suggested a few alterations, including adding tattoos on Bryant's arms in tribute to all of his daughters even though not all of his daughters had been born yet in 2006. Vanessa added, "This moment isn't just for Kobe, but it is for all of you who have been rooting for him for all of these years...It brings me joy to see how much love you have for all of us. We love you back."
During TNT's pregame show, Shaquille O'Neal spoke from the heart about winning three straight NBA championships while playing alongside Bryant, who he called his best teammate ever. It is no secret that Bryant and O'Neal openly feuded while they were teammates, mainly because Bryant had a much more serious and disciplined approach to the game than O'Neal did. O'Neal's current version of those events--that he and Bryant were not really feuding but just both pushing each other to be great--has more than a whiff of revisionist history to it but it is true that they made their peace with each other years before Bryant died, so perhaps it is best that O'Neal does not dwell on every detail of their feud or try to act like he was right.
This statue is just the latest in a series of posthumous honors and recognition for Bryant, who was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2021. In 2022, the NBA named the All-Star Game MVP after him. I am proud that I contributed to Forever Mamba--a special Kobe Bryant tribute magazine published by Lindy's Sports and edited by Roland Lazenby--and that I wrote an essay for a Kobe Bryant Tribute magazine published in Japan.
It has been four years since Kobe Bryant died in a helicopter crash alongside his daughter Gianna and seven others. Bryant and Gianna have been mourned by millions of people around the world, but it should always be remembered that the families of the seven other people who died suffered that day, and they mourn just as deeply.
Vanessa has displayed remarkable grace and poise in the wake of losing her husband and her second eldest daughter on the same horrible day. Much as Jacqueline Kennedy sought to preserve and enhance the legacy of her slain husband John F. Kennedy, it is evident that Vanessa has put a lot of thought into how to best honor and remember her husband and their daughter. Vanessa's speech during Bryant's memorial ceremony and her speech representing Bryant during the Basketball Hall of Fame ceremony highlighted her intelligence, her sensitivity, and her amazing ability to maintain composure while processing tremendous grief. She displayed those same qualities during her speech prior to the statue's unveiling. Vanessa is insuring that Bryant's legacy will endure not just in terms of his basketball accomplishments but also in terms of his post-basketball playing life that had only just begun when it was so cruelly cut short.
I remember as a child reading about Roberto Clemente's tragic passing at 38 in a plane crash as he flew to Nicaragua to personally deliver relief supplies for earthquake victims. The baseball legend had just logged his 3000th career hit, punctuating a brilliant career during which he won two World Series titles (1960, 1971) and one National League MVP (1966). I am not sure how to best express this, but when you learn about someone who has already tragically died at a young age you absorb the timing and manner of death as part of his life story--it is history by the time you know about it. It is different when someone whose life you followed--let alone someone who you personally interacted with on multiple occasions--dies suddenly and unexpectedly at a young age. Roberto Clemente is a historical figure to me: I admire and respect him, but his life did not intersect with my life.
I saw Kobe Bryant play in person. I spoke with him before games, and I spoke with him after games. I saw his mangled pinkie finger up close in person and could not understand how someone could play basketball at all--let alone dominate--with such an injury to his shooting hand; it was perhaps even more amazing when he played despite suffering an avulsion fracture to the index finger of his shooting hand, turning that finger into a bruised, purplish appendage that I also saw up close in person. At some level we all know about our mortality, but when someone who is young and seemingly invincible dies suddenly it is jarring. I don't mean to make this about me; Bryant may be a big part of my life journey because I wrote about him so frequently, but I don't pretend that I was a big part of his life journey. My point is that for those of us who are old enough to remember observing Bryant's life, his death will always be a milestone event that we process differently than we process the deaths of historical figures who perished outside of our living memory.